The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that it will move forward with a controversial set of rules reforming organic standards for livestock and poultry.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report released in mid-January has found that greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing corn-based ethanol are about 43 percent lower than gasoline.
Rural America’s vote is “still up for grabs” and worth the attention of both presidential candidates, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday morning.
Some farmers applying pesticides to fields this summer might ignore symptoms of being exposed to the chemicals, like headaches or nausea. But mounting evidence shows chronic exposure to pesticides may increase risks for certain cancers, like prostate cancer, and for other chronic illnesses, like Par
Biotechnology in the United States has been regulated by a system of three federal agencies since 1986. Critics, which include the White House, are now calling for that system to be modernized.
Monsanto claims it has come up with a way to physically make ears of corn an inch or two larger. If that turns out to be true – and if the new variety successfully makes it through the coordinated framework for biotechnology – it would be a big deal for the U.S. corn industry.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke about global food insecurity and hunger on Thursday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his speech, Vilsack highlighted a recently released USDA report that found roughly 14 percent of Americans are food insecure.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Thursday that his department will award nearly two dozen states with millions of dollars to build the gas pumps and other infrastructure needed to supply American drivers with more renewable fuel.
St. Louis-based seed company Monsanto has spearheaded a push for seed biotechnology, a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of the USDA data found for this report.
Two decades ago, less than 10 percent of corn and soybean acres were planted with genetically engineered seeds. Last year, nearly every single acre of corn and soybean was planted with GMOs. U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows St. Louis-based seed company Monsanto has propelled that rapid incr